NEWS
RELEASES from the United States Department of DefenseNo. 404-06 IMMEDIATE RELEASEMay 5, 2006 Media Contact: Army Public Affairs - (703)
692-2000 Public/Industry(703)428-0711

DoD Identifies Army Casualties

The Department of Defense announced today the
death of two soldiers who were supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
They died in Baghdad, Iraq on May 4, 2006, when an improvised explosive
device detonated near their RG-31 Mine Protected Vehicle during combat
operations. Reinke and Quinton were assigned to the 5th Engineer
Battalion, 1st Engineer Brigade, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

For further information related
to this release, contact Army Public Affairs at (703) 692-2000.

May 5, 2006Soldier From Pueblo Dies In Iraq

PUEBLO, Colorado. An Army soldier from
Pueblo on his second tour of duty in Iraq was killed earlier this week
when a roadside bomb detonated near his military vehicle, family and the
Department of Defense said Friday.

Staff Sergeant Gavin B. Reinke, 32, was one
of two soldiers who died after the explosion Thursday in Baghdad. Also
killed was Specialist Bryan L. Quinton, 24, of Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

Both men were assigned to the 5th Engineer
Battalion, 1st Engineer Brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

Reinke's wife, Carole Reinke, said she was
told her husband died while trying to help fellow soldiers whose Humvee
had been hit by an explosive moments earlier.

"That's exactly the kind of person he was,"
Reinke said from her home in Saint Robert, Mo., where she lives with their
3-year-old daughter, Kayleigh. "He was an amazing man. As a friend, as
a father, as a husband, and it carried over to being a soldier."

She said her husband wasn't an outgoing person,
but once people got to know him, he would do anything to help them. When
they lived on base, he would take the time to mow the lawn of his neighbor,
a single mother, when he had finished his own, she said.

"Everybody that knows him is just as proud
as they can be of what he did," Reinke said.

Gavin Reinke was born in New Jersey, but his
family moved to Pueblo in 1980, his father, Scott Reinke, said. He graduated
from Central High School and joined the military in 1996. Carole Reinke
said he loved his job and wanted to stay in the Army for at least 20 years.

His second tour had begun in November, and
his family believed he would have returned to the United States for a break
in the summer.

"He truly believed in what he was doing," his
mother, Karen Reinke, said.

When his work day was over, he relaxed by hunting
deer, elk and turkeys, fishing and riding all-terrain vehicles -- basically
any activity that could be done outdoors, Carole Reinke said. Usually,
his young daughter was by his side.

"He loved to go fishing with his daughter,"
Scott Reinke said as he looked at a photo of his son, daughter-in-law and
granddaughter, with Kayleigh holding a large catfish.

Scott Reinke said a memorial service for his
son was planned for Monday in Iraq, with a military funeral service to
be scheduled later at Fort Leonard Wood. Besides his parents, wife and
daughter, Gavin Reinke is survived by a younger brother.
Soldier's family mourning death of sonBy Annette Espinoza Courtesy of the Denver Post

The last time Scott and Karen Reinke of Pueblo
heard from their son Gavin was in an e-mail he sent them Wednesday from
Baghdad.

It turned out to be the day before he died.

"Be sure to tell people you love them," his
mother said Gavin told her.

Staff Sergeant Gavin B. Reinke, 32, was one
of two soldiers killed Thursday in Baghdad after a bomb detonated near
their military vehicle.

The other soldier killed in the attack was
Specialist Bryan Quinton, 24, of Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

Both men served with the 5th Engineer Battalion,
1st Engineer Brigade at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.

"He gave his life for his men," Karen Reinke
said.

Gavin Reinke was a 1993 graduate of Pueblo
Central High School and attended Pueblo Community College, where he studied
Spanish.

He married Carole Clayton, and they have a
daughter, Cayleigh, 3.

Gavin was born in New Jersey.

His parents said he was deployed for his second
tour of duty in Iraq in November. Scott Reinke said his son enjoyed hunting,
the outdoors and basketball.

"He loved to go fishing with his daughter,"
Scott Reinke said.

The Reinke family said a funeral service will
probably be held at Fort Leonard Wood, with burial in Arlington National
Cemetery.

Gavin is survived by his wife, his daughter,
his parents, and his brother, Darin, of Pueblo.
Chamber panel seeks finances to help family of slain soldierBy JEFF TUCKERCOUTESY OF THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

The Pueblo Chamber of Commerce's Military Affairs
Committee is raising money to help the family of fallen Pueblo soldier
Staff Sergeant Gavin Reinke attend his memorial services.

Committee Chairman Jeff Chostner said Friday
that members of the group will go back to their respective veterans organizations
to raise money to help send Reinke's family to two separate memorial services.

"It's my understanding that the military will
pick up the cost for the parents and maybe the siblings, but no other family
members," Chostner said.

Reinke, 32, was killed a week ago while serving
in Iraq. Reports said he was trying to help his fellow soldiers after their
vehicle had been hit by an improvised explosive device.

Reinke, a 1993 graduate of Central High School,
was stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. A memorial service is scheduled
there May 15, 2006. He will be buried with full military honors at Arlington
National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Chostner said the Military Affairs Committee
will help the family travel to both services, despite the fact that the
first service is just days away.

"We may have to pay them back after the fact,"
Chostner said.

Chostner said he didn't have specific numbers
about how many people are needed to contribute or how much it will cost.

He said the committee is working with the employer
of Reinke's mother.

Chostner said there are an estimated 30 veterans
groups in Pueblo, ranging from the Disabled American Veterans to the Purple
Heart Society, that will be asked to help.

Memorial accounts in Reinke's name also have
been established to benefit Reinke's daughter, Kayleigh. Contributions
may be made to the Gavin B. Reinke Memorial Fund, c/o Security Bank, Attn:
Bob Hyatt, P.O. Box S, Waynesville, Missouri, 65583.

The other fund has been established at Regions
Bank, c/o Doswell Brown, 401 Union St., Nashville Tennessee 37219.

Taking Flowers to Section 60At Arlington Cemetery, a Gesture of Respect
for a Stranger's Sacrifice in IraqSunday, May 27, 2007

"Do you ever feel guilty for not going to Iraq?"
an old college buddy asked me recently. As a 32-year-old civilian and father
of three, I didn't know what to say. My youngest brother had worked in
Baghdad and Fallujah for the U.S. Agency for International Development,
and I guess I counted his endless year there as my family's contribution
to the war. Yet the question lingered. I began reading the obituaries of
the fallen. I started to watch from my office window as the helicopters
circled back over the burials at nearby Arlington National Cemetery.

And then I read somewhere that it was once
common practice to "decorate" the graves of veterans with flowers, that
Memorial Day was originally called Decoration Day. "Let us gather," I read
in the 1868 General Order establishing this day of remembrance, "around
their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with
the choicest flowers of spring-time." This idea of a rite of public mourning,
as a simple wartime assignment, began to gnaw at me, an expression of guilt.

On a recent spring morning, I bought flowers
for Staff Sergeant Gavin B. Reinke. His obituary had stuck in my mind.
A year my senior, he was killed just four months after my brother's return
when an improvised explosive device detonated near the RG-31 Mine Protected
Vehicle he was riding in during combat operations in Baghdad.

I learned my destination at the Arlington cemetery's
information desk: Section 60. A short walk later, I paused at the curb,
then stepped onto the grass to approach the freshest row of graves -- some
still lacking the dignity of granite, or even sod. They were marked by
name cards tucked into plastic holders. These graves border the open field
that still makes up much of Section 60.

This is the closest I have come to the front
lines. Here there are those who lived as recently as one month ago.

One row in, I spotted the words, etched boldly
in black on white. Gavin Bradley Reinke, Purple Heart, Operation Iraqi
Freedom. I kneeled. Two small laminated photos, tucked into the dirt, hugged
the stone: one, a young girl, smiling, blond hair in pink barrettes; the
other, Sgt. Reinke with his wife. In a plastic bag nearby, the contents
pulpy from a recent rain, there were two cards, back to back: "For My Husband
You Are My Everything," and a postcard that read "Greetings from Washington,
D.C.," the kind of gift-shop card a little girl might choose.

I returned the bag to where it belonged, laid
my flowers and said a prayer for Gavin Reinke and for his family. Robins
busily probed the grass under blooming magnolias. Just over the next knoll,
a helicopter landed at the Pentagon. Then a John Deere excavator appeared
and idled.

I stood. The excavator's tires were caked with
Virginia clay the color of rust. With a diesel rumble, the machine arched
its scoop into the sky, poised above the Arlington soil.